Caitlyn Collins
September 2016
Caitlyn
Collins
,
RN
Cardiac Telemetry
Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital
Barrington
,
IL
United States
I would like to nominate Caitlyn Collins of 2 cardiac for a DAISY Award based on the excellent care she provided to my patient who was critically ill and rapidly deteriorating.
The patient was a middle-aged woman with multiple medical problems, including liver and a kidney transplant. When Caitlyn first rounded on this patient at the beginning of her shift, the patient was awake, alert, and insisting on being discharged. By the time I saw the patient and hour or so later, she was becoming somnolent and confused. She had a history of untreated sleep apnea, so I asked Caitlyn to place the patient on continuous O2 saturation monitoring. In fact, the patient had miserably failed an overnight apnea link test the previous night.
Caitlyn reassessed this patient multiple times over the next hour and informed me that she was becoming more and more lethargic. She was placed on supplemental oxygen. Caitlyn then wisely suggested checking a blood gas. It showed marked CO2 retention with pCO2 of almost 80.
Caitlyn did not panic but immediately recognized the gravity of the patient's deteriorating clinical condition. She calmly called the RRT nurse JC, who promptly came to assess the patient. The patient was placed on BiPAP and a repeat blood gas was obtained. Since the pCO2 had not improved, the patient was transferred to the ICU. Ultimately, the patient did respond to BiPAP and did not require intubation. The next morning when I rounded on her in the ICU, she was doing quite well on only 3L of O2 per nasal cannula.
I believe that were it not for the exemplary care Caitlyn provided this patient, she likely would have progressed to an emergent RRT or code blue situation. Instead, thanks to her quick thinking, appropriate interventions, and excellent collaboration with the patient's attending physician and the RRT nurse, the patient was transferred to the ICU in a controlled, stable fashion, and ultimately did quite well.
Another thing that makes her actions even more impressive to me is the fact that Caitlyn does not have years and years of nursing experience to draw upon. Although she is a recent nursing school graduate, she handled this patient's deteriorating clinical condition with the calm expertise of a much more experienced nurse.
Therefore, I would like to thank Caitlyn for the outstanding care she provided to my patient. I feel she is most deserving of the DAISY Award.
The patient was a middle-aged woman with multiple medical problems, including liver and a kidney transplant. When Caitlyn first rounded on this patient at the beginning of her shift, the patient was awake, alert, and insisting on being discharged. By the time I saw the patient and hour or so later, she was becoming somnolent and confused. She had a history of untreated sleep apnea, so I asked Caitlyn to place the patient on continuous O2 saturation monitoring. In fact, the patient had miserably failed an overnight apnea link test the previous night.
Caitlyn reassessed this patient multiple times over the next hour and informed me that she was becoming more and more lethargic. She was placed on supplemental oxygen. Caitlyn then wisely suggested checking a blood gas. It showed marked CO2 retention with pCO2 of almost 80.
Caitlyn did not panic but immediately recognized the gravity of the patient's deteriorating clinical condition. She calmly called the RRT nurse JC, who promptly came to assess the patient. The patient was placed on BiPAP and a repeat blood gas was obtained. Since the pCO2 had not improved, the patient was transferred to the ICU. Ultimately, the patient did respond to BiPAP and did not require intubation. The next morning when I rounded on her in the ICU, she was doing quite well on only 3L of O2 per nasal cannula.
I believe that were it not for the exemplary care Caitlyn provided this patient, she likely would have progressed to an emergent RRT or code blue situation. Instead, thanks to her quick thinking, appropriate interventions, and excellent collaboration with the patient's attending physician and the RRT nurse, the patient was transferred to the ICU in a controlled, stable fashion, and ultimately did quite well.
Another thing that makes her actions even more impressive to me is the fact that Caitlyn does not have years and years of nursing experience to draw upon. Although she is a recent nursing school graduate, she handled this patient's deteriorating clinical condition with the calm expertise of a much more experienced nurse.
Therefore, I would like to thank Caitlyn for the outstanding care she provided to my patient. I feel she is most deserving of the DAISY Award.